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Research aircraft from the Alfred Wegener Institute have been surveying the ice-covered Arctic Ocean for 30 years. The immense effort of the past 52 expeditions has paid off: 40,000 km of measurement data document the significant decrease in pack-ice thickness as a result of climate change. The time series is the only aeroplane- and helicopter-based measurement series in the world that has been carried out in the Arctic over such a long period. Currently, two Basler BT-67 aircraft are in operation: the Polar 5 and Polar 6.

The research sailing vessel Tara of the French Tara Ocean Foundation has been in Bremerhaven since May 5. Currently, the ship is on the Tara EUROPA expedition. On this mission, the water along the coasts of Europe will be investigated. During the stopover in Bremerhaven, a team from AWI had the opportunity to take a look at the inside of the sailing ship with its three laboratories. The group around AWI director Antje Boetius took the opportunity to talk to the crew and to get to know the Tara Ocean Foundation.

A new app is capable of identifying, visualising and describing macroalgae present in the western and eastern Wadden Sea, and around the island Helgoland. The app, called SeaKey, currently provides details for the identification of 68 brown algae species; green and red algae will follow. Developed by researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute and external cooperation partners, it offers scientific experts and government authorities, students and interested non-experts a straightforward way to measure algae, thanks to its innovative matrix concept.

Norsk Polarinstitutt (NPI) and AWI have signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Berlin, reaffirming their cooperation. The occasion was the 250th birthday of Henrik Steffens, once professor and rector of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU). At the event hosted by the HU's Nordeuropa-Institut, AWI Director Antje Boetius gave a joint presentation with NPI Director Ole Misund on "Polar missions - Current and future drivers of international collaboration in polar science." 

Thousands of tonnes of microplastics are emitted in the German-Danish border region every year. The PlastTrack project, funded by the European Union as part of Interreg Deutschland-Danmark programme, investigates potential dangers for the environment and us humans. The institutions involved also develop tools to monitor and combat plastic pollution in the region. The project is led by the Southern Danish University (SDU) in Sønderborg. On the German side, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel contributes knowledge on the detection of tiny…

The company MACROCARBON SL has just been founded in Las Palmas, on the Canary Islands. It is a spin-off from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and Carbonwave. The start-up is developing algae farms, in which the macroalgae Sargassum will be cultivated. These algae simultaneously bind large amounts of CO2 and produce new raw materials for the chemical industry.

The European Commission has officially established ACTRIS as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). With its ERIC status, ACTRIS is now officially recognised as a European research infrastructure for atmospheric research. It provides science, industry and public authorities with access to a wide range of high-quality data, technologies, services and resources, and to promote cutting-edge research and international cooperation in the field of atmospheric research.

The alga Melosira arctica, which grows under Arctic sea ice, contains ten times as many microplastic particles as the surrounding seawater. This concentration at the base of the food web poses a threat to creatures that feed on the algae at the sea surface. Clumps of dead algae also transport the plastic with its pollutants particularly quickly into the deep sea - and can thus explain the high microplastic concentrations in the sediment there. Researchers led by the Alfred Wegener Institute have now reported this in the journal Environmental Science and…

Anthropogenic climate change has, together with the intensive use and destruction of natural ecosystems through agriculture, fishing and industry, sparked an unprecedented loss of biodiversity that continues to worsen. In this regard, the climate crisis and biodiversity crisis are often viewed as two separate catastrophes. An international team of researchers led by Hans-Otto Pörtner from the Alfred Wegener Institute calls for adopting a new perspective. In their review study just released in the journal Science, they recommend (in addition to complying…

Wie bedenklich sind die Munitionsreste zweier Weltkriege, die noch immer in alten Wracks am Grund der Nordsee und anderen Meeren liegen?